Mark Goldbridge: They don’t make players like Roy Keane anymore – him, David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo were in a league on their own
Mark Goldbridge explains why players like Roy Keane no longer exist in football, gives his opinion on Erik ten Hag’s struggles and Manchester United’s chances of finishing in the top five.
Keane was always very fiery and aggressive and at Manchester United and [coaches] matured him into this leader and the most decorated captain in Premier League history.
As a player and as a leader, he’s probably my favourite player of all time. I always put him in my top three. He’s a player that probably doesn’t exist anymore. I think about the John Terrys and the Steven Gerrards — very good captains for Chelsea and Liverpool — but Roy Keane was a different level to that.
He embodied the manager. He was the manager on the pitch and Sir Alex Ferguson and Roy Keane were just in tune.
There’s two games that stand out for me – the 1996 FA Cup Final which was boring, but he was brilliant in that 1-0 win over Liverpool.
And then the [1999 Champions League] semi-final in Turin when he got the second yellow card and was going to miss the final. He inspired us from a losing position against Juventus to the final.
That’s the quintessential leader who embodies the manager and inspires a team and he’s got that aggression as well.
I’ll go with the three I consistently pick. Certainly Roy Keane was a role model for me as a lad. I loved his engine, his tenacity. He was a good player as well, a leader, aggressive. I just loved all that.
David Beckham I liked for different reasons, I even remember having a hairstyle like him. When he got sent off against Argentina I was one of the few people in the country that stuck up for him.
I love the way he played the game. I don’t think he was the most talented player but technically he just had a wand of a right foot.
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